The majestic 25-story Cosmos Hotel structure built in 1979 in accordance with the project created by French architects is a truly impressive sight for both city visitors and Moscovites. The imposing architecture is combined with the magnificent interior decor of the halls, gourmet cuisine offered by the restaurants, sophisticated splendour of the rooms.The architectural asceticism expressed by the simplicity and harmony of its construction and the combination of glass and steel make the hotel similar to the spaceship striving to the universe. Even the interior of the hotel creates the atmosphere of cosmic freedom, purity and relaxation.In the immediate vicinity of the Cosmos Hotel, guests will find two of the most spectacular Soviet monuments in the city. The incredible titanium Space Obelisk, a soviet rocket blasting off into the sky on a 100 meter plume of glistening metallic smoke, was built in 1964 to celebrate Cosmanaut space man Yury Gagarin's first orbit of the earth. The monument houses an impressive museum detailing the history of Russian Cosmanautics and is guarded by a statue of a pensive Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the father of Russian rocketry. Across the road from the Cosmos Hotel are towers the impressive "Worker and Collective Farm Girl" statue, designed by Vera Mukhina for the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 Paris Expo to embody the very spirit and energy of the Soviet State. Striding bravely forward, with hammer and sickle raised high, the enormous figures represented industrial progress and Soviet dynamism and are among the most famous images of the Soviet inter-war years.Directly opposite the Cosmos Hotel stands the expansive All-Russian Exhibition Center. Initially created in 1939 as the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, the center was intended to demonstrate the economic and industrial achievements of Socialism in Russia and provide a forum for monumental Stalinist architecture and design. The exhibition complex became a permanent fixture under President Brezhnev but by the 1980s rather than celebrating the might of Soviet industry, the pavilions began to exhibit more and more Western-manufactured goods. Visitors can wander freely throughout the exhibition complex visiting pavilions dedicated to Atomic Energy, the Russian Coal Industry, Education and Science, Electro-technology, Agriculture and the Russian Space Program, featuring a genuine Vostok rocket similar to the one that sent Gagarin into orbit on his first successful mission.Also located just a short walk from the Cosmos are the Moscow Botanical Gardens, covering 860 acres of parkland. Founded in 1945, the Gardens now house the largest collection of exotic plants and trees in the country.